Razor blade and manufacturing method thereof

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides an improvement to razor blade coating by a physical vapor deposition method, by forming a hard coating layer as a thin coating layer in which chromium boride, which is a nanocrystalline structure having high hardness, is dispersed in an amorphous mixture of chromium and boron, thereby improving the strength and hardness of the thin coating layer and securing the bonding force by chromium in the amorphous mixture between the hard coating layer and a blade substrate on which an edge of the razor blade is formed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/880,901, filed on May 21, 2020, which pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 119(a),claims the benefit of earlier filing date and right of priority toKorean Patent Application Number 10-2019-0060078, filed May 22, 2019,the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a razor blade and a method formanufacturing a razor blade. More particularly, the present disclosurerelates to a razor blade edge for a razor, having a hard coating layerfor improving durability and hardness and a method for manufacturing therazor blade edge.

BACKGROUND

The statements in this section merely provide background informationrelated to the present disclosure and do not necessarily constituteprior art.

Razor blades of wet razor are usually made from a base material orsubstrate of stainless steel that goes through heat treatment toincrease the hardness, the heat treated substrate subsequently goingthrough the polishing process to form blade edges. Thereafter, variouscoating materials are deposited over the edge of the razor blade toincrease the strength and durability of the razor blade edge sharpenedat one end. As a coating material, a typical metallic material for hardcoating or ceramic-based carbides, nitrides, oxides, metal borides, andthe like may be used. In addition, organic materials such asPolyTetraFlouroEthylene (PTFE) may be deposited on the hard thin-filmmaterial to reduce friction with the skin during shaving and to improveshaving performance.

In general, as hardness of the coating thin-film increases, brittlenessalso increases, thus possibly deteriorating the durability of the film.In this case, an intermediate layer is formed of a material such asmolybdenum between the hard thin film and the blade substrate to improvethe adhesion to the substrate and to complement the brittleness of thehard thin film.

Meanwhile, it has been a general practice to perform deposition ofdissimilar materials by arranging two or more sputter targets around arazor blade under different voltage and bias conditions controlled foreach target, thereby depositing the target materials on the razor bladeexposed to the targets. To counteract the need for a larger depositionchamber and a longer time for deposition, a method has been proposed toperform deposition under a single sputtering condition with a singlesputter target in which dissimilar materials are mechanically bondedtogether.

SUMMARY

According to some embodiments, the present disclosure provides a razorblade including a blade substrate on which a blade edge is formed, ahard coating layer coated on the blade substrate, and a polymer coating.The hard coating layer includes an amorphous region in which chromiumand boron are mixed, and one or more nanocrystalline structures aredispersed in the amorphous region. The polymer coating is formed on thehard coating layer.

The nanocrystalline structure may be chromium boride.

The hard coating layer may be a single layer.

The nanocrystalline structure may have a particle diameter in a range of3 to 100 nm.

The hard coating layer may have a thickness in a range of 10 to 1000 nm.

The razor blade may further include an adhesion-enhancing layer disposedbetween the hard coating layer and the blade substrate.

The adhesion-enhancing layer has a content of Cr at 90 atomic percent(at %) or more.

The nanocrystalline structures included in the hard coating layer mayhave a volume ratio of 30% or more.

The hard coating layer may be configured to have the nanocrystallinestructures at a ratio that varies gradually from the inner side to theouter side of the hard coating layer that is in contact with the bladesubstrate.

In accordance with another embodiment, the present disclosure provides amethod for manufacturing a razor blade, the method including performinga heat treatment on a blade substrate and forming a blade edge bypolishing a heat-treated blade substrate and forming a hard coatinglayer by performing physical vapor deposition (PVD) on the heat-treatedblade substrate, on which the blade edge is formed, by using a singlecomposite target, in which chromium and boron are mechanically combinedand mixed, to provide the hard coating layer in the form ofnanocrystalline structures dispersed in an amorphous region in which thechromium and the boron are mixed, and forming a polymer coating on thehard coating layer.

The hard coating layer may be a single layer.

The nanocrystalline structure may have a particle diameter in a range of3 to 100 nm.

The physical vapor deposition that forms the hard coating layer may beperformed for sputtering by a collision cascade process under asputtering condition that the blade substrate has a bias in a range ofof −50 to −750 V, a temperature in a range of 0 to 200° C., and a DCpower density in a range of 1 to 12 W/cm².

The physical vapor deposition that forms the hard coating layer may beperformed for sputtering by a collision cascade process under asputtering condition that the blade substrate has a bias in a range of−200 to −600 V, a temperature in a range of 100 to 150° C., and a DCpower density in a range of 4 to 8 W/cm².

The single composite target may further include a material in which thechromium and the boron are crystallographically combined.

The hard coating layer may be configured to have the nanocrystallinestructures of chromium boride at a volume ratio that is changed in athickness direction by adjusting an area ratio of the chromium to theboron in the single composite target in a direction in which the bladesubstrate moves through a deposition with respect to the singlecomposite target.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view of a blade edge for a razor andcoating layers on the blade edge, according to at least one embodimentof the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a first type of single compositetarget according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of a configuration of a vacuum chamberfor depositing a hard coating layer according to at least one embodimentof the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is conceptual diagrams of a second type of single compositetarget and a third type of single composite target according to someembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) photograph of a hardcoating layer coated according to at least one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 6 shows results of selected area electron diffraction (SAED) ofnanocrystallines of a hard coating layer coated according to at leastone embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure seeks to provide a razor blade coating with ahard coating layer as a thin coating layer in which chromium boride,which is a nanocrystalline structure having high hardness, is dispersedin an amorphous mixture of chromium and boron, thereby improving thehardness and strength, i.e., the durability of the thin coating layer.

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described below withreference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description,like reference numerals would rather designate like elements, althoughthe elements are shown in different drawings. Further, in the followingdescription of the at least one embodiment, a detailed description ofknown functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omittedfor the purpose of clarity and for brevity.

Additionally, various terms such as first, second, A, B, (a), (b), etc.,are used solely for the purpose of differentiating one component fromthe other but not to imply or suggest the substances, the order orsequence of the components. Throughout this specification, when a part“includes” or “comprises” a component, the part is meant to furtherinclude other components, not excluding thereof unless there is aparticular description contrary thereto. In addition, the terms such as“unit”, “module”, and the like refer to units for processing at leastone function or operation, which may be implemented by hardware,software, or a combination thereof. Further, the description that thecomposition ratio of A to B is large or small means that the value ofA/B is large or small.

According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, physicalvapor deposition (PVD) is used for coating a hard coating layer 120. Thephysical vapor deposition may be any one of methods including a DirectCurrent (DC) sputtering, DC magnetron sputtering, DC unbalancedmagnetron sputtering, pulse DC unbalanced magnetron sputtering, radiofrequency (RF) sputtering, arc ion plating, electron-beam evaporation,ion-beam deposition, or ion-beam assisted deposition.

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view of a blade edge for a razor andcoating layers on the blade edge, according to at least one embodimentof the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 1 , a razor blade 10 according to at least oneembodiment of the present disclosure includes a razor blade substrate110, a hard thin film layer or hard coating layer 120, and a polymercoating 130.

In at least one embodiment, the hard coating layer 120 is a single layercontaining chromium (Cr) and boron (B) on the blade substrate 110. Here,the term ‘single-layer’ means that the distinction between regionswithin the single layer is indefinite. Further, the single-layer mayalso encompass a layer configured to have different composition ratiosdepending on the position in the thickness direction thereof. Thesingle-layer may be superior in durability compared to the multi-layerthin film. An initial fracture generally starting at the interlayerboundary under repeated impact loads is the main cause of reduceddurability, and thus, the single-layer may outlast the multi-layer thinfilm.

In particular, the hard coating layer 120, according to at least oneembodiment, is formed such that nanocrystallines 122 of high-hardnesschromium borides is dispersed in amorphous 124.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a first type of single compositetarget according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 2 , a sputtering target used for physical vapordeposition is configured to have combined multiple regions composed ofdissimilar materials. A single composite target 20 is a combination ofdissimilar materials including at least one first material 210 and atleast one second material 220 alternately arranged in a mosaic form, tobe used as a single target. The deposition ratio of the first material210 to the second material 220 on the substrate 110 may be controlled byadjusting the area ratio in the single composite target 20 between thefirst material 210 and the second material 220.

According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, thefirst material 210 used in the single composite target 20 of the firsttype is chrome (Cr) and the second material 220 used therein is boron(B).

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of a configuration of a vacuum chamberfor depositing a hard coating layer according to at least one embodimentof the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 3 , a sputtering apparatus 30 includes an aggregate 310and a vacuum chamber 320 enclosing the aggregate 310 of multiplearranged elements of sputtering targets that are multiples of the singletarget 20 and razor blade substrates 110 to be coated. The sputteringapparatus 30 is internally formed with a high vacuum of about 10⁻⁶ torr,an atmosphere by an injection gas (in at least one embodiment, argon orAr gas), and a plasma 350. With argon gas injected and direct current(DC) power applied, argon gas is plasma-excited, and argon ions aregenerated. The generated argon ions are accelerated toward the singlecomposite target 20 by a DC power condition at the negative electrode asapplied to the target side, until they collide with the target surface,causing neutral target atoms to be drawn out.

The razor blade substrates 110 are formed by using a material such asstainless steel, undergo a heat treatment process to increase thehardness, and are polished to form a razor blade edge, and thensimultaneously deposited with particles of dissimilar materialsdischarged from the single composite target 20 as shown in FIG. 2 toform the hard coating layer 120.

The razor blade substrate 110 may be subjected to a surface cleaningtreatment with argon plasma before the deposition to remove residualforeign matter and oxide films. In addition, before performing a seriesof deposition operations on the blade aggregate 310 and before it istransported to face the single composite target 20, the blade aggregate310 may undergo pre-sputtering in the argon atmosphere for about 5 to 20seconds for cleaning the single composite target 20.

Of the blade aggregate 310, the blade areas to be coated and thesputtering target may be disposed to face each other. The instantembodiment illustrates a case where the blade aggregate 310 istransferred with respect to a fixed sputtering target, although thereverse is also envisioned. The razor blade aggregate 310 and/or thesingle composite target 20 may include a bias voltage forming mechanism(not shown in drawings) and/or a heating mechanism (not shown indrawings) required for sputtering.

According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, thesingle composite target 20 includes Cr and B and deposition is performedwith an atomic ratio of Cr to B, ranging from 9:1 to 4:6. Preferably,the atomic ratio of Cr to B may be 6:4.

In this case, the power density for deposition may be in the range of 1to 12 W/cm² and may correspond to a level of 1 to 10 kW. The bladesubstrate 110 may be subject to a bias of −50 to −750 V, a temperatureof 0 to 200° C., and a DC power density of 1 to 12 W/cm². Preferably,the blade substrate 110 may be subject to a temperature of 15 to 75° C.,a bias of −200 to −600 V, and a DC power density of 4 to 8 W/cm².

This is a sputtering condition derived by considering the characteristicsputtering ratios of Cr and B and these are formed as a single compositetarget 20. For reference, when Cr is incident on the substrate 110 withcollisional energy of 250 to 10,000 eV and when B is incident on thesame with collisional energy of 1,000 to 10,000 eV, the sputtering rateis high, based on which the single composite target 20 may be set to bewithin a range where they obtain collisional energy of 1,000 to 10,000eV. When the ion energy of the particles incident on the blade substrate110 is at a certain level, for example, 1,000 eV or less for B and 250eV or less for Cr, or less, which corresponds to a knock-on condition,the particles may eventually bounce, and deposition may not be donewell. On the contrary, collisional energy of 100,000 eV or more will notland the particles for deposition on the surface, which, instead, thrustdeep into the substrate 110. The described sputtering conditions areselected in consideration of the sputtering apparatus of at least oneembodiment so that the particles are accelerated with the ion energy inthe medium range of both extremes, for allowing cascade sputtering tooccur mostly and thus the ion beam mixing effect which improves thebonding force between the surface of the blade substrate 110 and thecoating materials toward the desirable coating process.

In the above-described conditions, the hard coating layer 120 isdistinctively formed to have a thickness of at least 10 nm and to be upto 1,000 nm thick. In addition, the hard coating layer 120 features thenanocrystallines 122 having a particle diameter of 3 to 100 nm as beingdispersed in the amorphous 124.

In at least one embodiment, the nanocrystalline 122 may include varioustypes of crystal structures in which Cr and B are crystallographicallycombined, such as CrB, CrB₂, Cr₂B, and may also include Cr crystals,while the amorphous 124 may be a mixture of Cr and B. In addition, thesize of crystals formed in the hard coating layer 120 may beappropriately controlled by appropriately adjusting the collision energyof the particles that collide with the blade substrate 110.

The amorphous 124 structure, according to at least one embodiment, isarranged to surround the nanocrystalline 122 structures and therebyserves to disperse and absorb stress applied to the high-hardnessnanocrystalline 122 structure in which Cr and B are crystallographicallycombined. In other words, the nanocrystalline 122 structures accordingto at least one embodiment may contribute to securing the hardness ofthe hard coating layer 120, and the amorphous 124 structure including Crand B may surround and support the nanocrystalline 122 structures todisperse an impact load, thereby securing the strength and durability ofthe hard coating layer 120. In addition, Cr in the amorphous 124structure may contribute to securing the adhesion between the hardcoating layer 120 and the substrate stainless steel.

On the other hand, B has a weak affinity with Fe, the main component ofthe blade substrate 110, and it has a higher affinity with Cr than withFe. In physical vapor deposition, B may be crystallographically bound toCr or dispersed within the amorphous 124.

In general, when the size of the formed crystal is large, the surfacehardness may be further increased, but the brittleness may increase, anddurability may be deteriorated due to damage from an external impact.The sputtering conditions are preferably controlled such that crystalsof appropriately small sizes, which are on the order of several to tensof nanometers in diameter, are evenly distributed. For example, when theenergy of the particles incident on the deposition surface is large, itmay exhibit the effect of splitting the crystal nuclei of the depositionsurface or splitting the grown crystal, thereby suppressing the increasein the size of the nanocrystalline 122 structures in the hard coatinglayer 120.

Meanwhile, an ion gun may be additionally installed on the sputteringapparatus according to one embodiment, and a thin-film depositionprocess may be performed using the sputtering apparatus and the arc ionplating method together.

FIG. 4 is conceptual diagrams of a second type of single compositetarget and a third type of single composite target according to someembodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 4 , the second and third types of the single compositetargets 21 and 22 are each formed by three types of target materialscombined. A first material 210 is Cr, a second material 220 is B, and athird material 230 is one in which materials of Cr and B arecrystallographically combined in a certain arrangement. The first,second, and third materials 210, 220, and 230 arranged in the ordersshown in FIG. 4 at (a) and (b) are merely illustrative but notrestrictive examples, and they may be arranged in different orders or atdifferent area ratios.

The third material 230 may be a composite of Cr and B that arecrystallographically combined in the form of Cr_(x)B_(y) such as CrB,CrB₂, Cr₂B, and CrB₄ among others, and Cr and B may be combined atvarious atomic ratios. When using a partial target composed of amaterial in which Cr and B are crystallographically combined, it ishighly probable that the coating layer formed therefrom contain mainlythe same partial target's crystal structures distributed therein, wherea specific one of the crystal structures distributed in the coatinglayer may be induced to become the dominant ingredient therein.

In at least one embodiment, the metallic material of the dissimilarmaterials is described as being Cr, but the present disclosure is not solimited, and envisions the metallic material as being any one of Cr, Ni,Ti, W, and Nb. In at least one embodiment, Cr is selected to be themetallic material in consideration of the thin-film adhesiveness withthe stainless steel of the blade substrate 110.

Although not shown, a single composite target may be configured suchthat the second material 220 and the third material 230 are insertedinto the first material 210, wherein the area ratio between thedissimilar materials may be adjusted by adjusting the interval in thepattern at which the second and third materials are inserted or byadjusting the sizes of the pattern elements.

The single composite targets 20, 21, and 22 may be configured in anymanner in terms of form and arrangement as long as the targets 20, 21,and 22 can contain properly distributed dissimilar materials until theyare granulated and drawn out therefrom to be sufficiently uniformlymixed for the blade substrate 110 subject to the deposition.

The respective materials disposed inside the single composite targetsmay take various shapes such as circles, triangles, and squares, forexample. Further, the rectangular shapes may be arranged in a mosaicpattern to be mechanically combined. Alternatively or additionally, asingle material may form the entire single composite target with aplurality of holes formed therein for insertion and bonding ofdissimilar materials.

FIG. 5 is a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) photograph of a hardcoating layer coated according to at least one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 6 shows results of selected area electron diffraction (SAED) ofnanocrystallines of a hard coating layer coated according to at leastone embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 6 , deposition of the nanocrystallines 122 havingcmcm-CrB structure and I4/mcm-CrB structure was confirmed, and accordingto Kvashnin et al. (Kvashnin, A. G., Oganov, A. R., Samtsevich, A. I. &Allahyari, Z. (2017). Computational search for novel hard chromium-basedmaterials, Journal of Physical Chemistry, 8(4), 755-764) and in theoryat least, all of cmcm-Cr, I41/amd and I4/mcm exhibit very high hardnessin terms of hardness of crystalline particle, and the CrB crystal asproduced and measured by the embodiments of the present disclosure maybe interpreted as achieving a sufficiently high hardness.

On the other hand, although not shown in drawings, the hard coatinglayer 120 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure mayhave a configuration in which the average particle diameter of thenanocrystalline 122 or the ratio of the nanocrystalline 122 to theamorphous 124 is variable in the thickness direction in the hard coatinglayer 120. For example, the hard coating layer 120 may be configured todefine a low ratio of the nanocrystallines 122 to the amorphous 124,that is, a high ratio of the amorphous 124, close to the inner side ofthe hard coating layer 120 in contact with the blade substrate 110, andto define a high ratio of the nanocrystallines 122 to the amorphous 124,that is, a high ratio of the nanocrystallines 122, close to the outerside of the hard coating layer 120. The configuration with thecomposition ratios being variable in the thickness direction in the hardcoating layer 120 may be implemented by providing variations in the arearatio of the dissimilar materials in at least one of the singlecomposite targets 20, 21, and 22 in a direction in which the bladesubstrate 110 is transferred during the physical vapor deposition.Further, in the sequential and continuous deposition process performedon the razor blade substrate 110 with at least one of the singlecomposite targets 20, 21, and 22, variations in the area ratio of thedissimilar materials in the single composite targets 20, 21, 22 causeparticles to be drawn out therefrom at various composition ratios suchthat different composition ratios of the particles are deposited on therazor blade 110 in the early and late deposition stages.

In addition, although the hard coating layer 120 according to at leastone embodiment features a single layer deposited in the form of thenanocrystalline 122 of Cr and B crystallographically combined and theamorphous material 124 into which Cr and B are mixed, the presentdisclosure does not exclude that a buffer layer or adhesion enhancinglayer is incorporated between the hard coating layer 120 and the bladesubstrate 110 or that the Cr coating layer may be laminated as aninterlayer between the hard coating layer 120 and the polymer coating130.

The hard coating layer 120 according to at least one embodiment is asingle layer that has expectable improvements in strength anddurability, and it may be formed to have dissimilar materials that aregradually changed in their composition ratio in the thickness direction,and in particular, formed to have such advantageous composition ratio inthe regions close to both side surfaces of the razor blade 10 such thatadhesion with the material or the coating layer that comes into contactwith both side surfaces is enhanced.

The present disclosure provides an improvement to the razor bladecoating by a physical vapor deposition method, by forming a hard coatinglayer as a thin coating layer in which chromium boride, which isnanocrystallines having high hardness, is dispersed in an amorphousmixture of chromium and boron, and thereby improving the strength andhardness of the thin coating layer and securing the bonding force bychromium in the amorphous mixture between the hard coating layer and theblade substrate.

Although exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure have beendescribed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art willappreciate that various modifications, additions, and substitutions arepossible, without departing from the various characteristics of thedisclosure. Therefore, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosurehave been described for the sake of brevity and clarity. Accordingly,one of ordinary skill would understand the scope of the disclosure isnot limited by the above explicitly described embodiments but by theclaims and equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A razor blade for a wet razor, comprising: ablade substrate on which a blade edge is formed; a coating layer coateddirectly on the blade substrate and comprising one or morenanocrystalline structures, the coating layer including an amorphousregion in which chromium and boron are mixed, wherein the one or morenanocrystalline structures are dispersed in the amorphous region, andwherein the one or more nanocrystalline structures comprise chromiumboride.
 2. The razor blade of claim 1, wherein the coating layer is asingle layer.
 3. The razor blade of claim 1, wherein the coating layeris configured to have the one or more nanocrystalline structures at aratio that varies gradually from an inner side to an outer side of thecoating layer.
 4. The razor blade of claim 1, wherein the one or morenanocrystalline structures comprise particles with a diameter in a rangeof 3 to 100 nm.
 5. The razor blade of claim 1, further comprising apolymer coating formed on the coating layer.
 6. The razor blade of claim1, wherein the coating layer is a hard coating layer.
 7. The razor bladeof claim 1, wherein the one or more nanocrystalline structures furthercomprise Cr crystals.
 8. A method for manufacturing a razor blade for awet razor, the method comprising: performing a heat treatment on a bladesubstrate to create a heat-treated blade substrate; forming a blade edgeon the heat-treated blade substrate by polishing the heat-treated bladesubstrate; forming a coating layer directly on the heat-treated bladesubstrate comprising one or more nanocrystalline structures byperforming physical vapor deposition (PVD) on the heat-treated bladesubstrate, on which the blade edge is formed, by using a singlecomposite target including chromium and boron that are mechanicallycombined and mixed to provide the coating layer including an amorphousregion in which the chromium and the boron are mixed, wherein the one ormore nanocrystalline structures are dispersed in the amorphous region,and wherein the one or more nanocrystalline structures comprise chromiumboride.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the coating layer is a singlelayer.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or morenanocrystalline structures comprise particles with a diameter in a rangeof 3 to 100 nm.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the physical vapordeposition is performed for sputtering by a collision cascade processunder a sputtering condition that the blade substrate has a bias in arange of −50 to −750 V, a temperature in a range of 0 to 200° C., and adirect current (DC) power density in a range of 1 to 12 W/cm2.
 12. Themethod of claim 8, wherein the physical vapor deposition that forms thecoating layer is performed for sputtering by a collision cascade processunder a sputtering condition that the blade substrate has a bias in arange of −200 to −600 V, a temperature in a range of 100 to 150° C., anda DC power density in a range of 4 to 8 W/cm2.
 13. The method of claim8, wherein the single composite target further includes: a material inwhich the chromium and the boron are crystallographically combined. 14.The method of claim 8, wherein the coating layer is configured to havethe one or more nanocrystalline structures of chromium boride at avolume ratio that is changed in a thickness direction by adjusting anarea ratio of the chromium to the boron in the single composite targetin a direction in which the blade substrate moves through a depositionwith respect to the single composite target.
 15. The razor blade ofclaim 1, wherein the chromium in the amorphous region is configured tosecure the adhesion between the coating layer and the blade substrate.16. The razor blade of claim 1, wherein the one or more nanocrystallinestructures are configured to secure the strength and durability of thecoating layer.
 17. The razor blade of claim 1, wherein the amorphousregion is configured to disperse and absorb stress applied to the one ormore nanocrystalline structures.
 18. The razor blade of claim 1, whereinthe one or more nanocrystalline structures comprise chromium boride asCrB, CrB2, Cr2B, or CrB4.